Malhotra was a bargain for Sharks

In this Jan. 13, 2009, photo, Columbus Blue Jackets' Manny Malhotra carries the puck during an NHL hockey game against the Colorado Avalanche in Columbus, Ohio. The San Jose Sharks have signed free-agent Malhotra to a contract. The team did not announce terms of the deal Wednesday, Sept 23, 2009. Malhotra has played 12 seasons in the NHL. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

Manny Malhotra did not take full financial advantage of his first shot at free agency. Far from it.

He could have signed a reported four-year, $8 million contract with the Atlanta Thrashers. Before July 1, he could have returned to the Columbus Blue Jackets, where he earned $1.5 million last season.

Instead, the 29-year-old center ended up signing a one-year contract with the Sharks this week that will pay him $700,000 — all that San Jose general manager Doug Wilson could afford without jettisoning other players to keep his team under the NHL salary cap.

"At the beginning of the summer, I talked with my wife and we decided to make the commitment to go somewhere we could win now. When an opportunity like coming to San Jose comes about, you jump at that," said Malhotra, who will play his first game before his new home crowd at HP Pavilion tonight when the Sharks face the Anaheim Ducks.

Malhotra, whose arrival in San Jose last week was overshadowed by the blockbuster trade for Dany Heatley, said his wife, Joann, understood his desire to put victories over dollars because she's an athlete herself, a past member of Canada's national soccer team.

She also has a Bay Area sports connection — her brother is Steve Nash, the Phoenix Suns MVP guard who played at Santa Clara University.

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"He was really excited," Malhotra said of his brother-in-law's reaction to the news the Sharks would be the next stop in a decade-long NHL career. "He still knows a lot of people in the area, and we have some family friends here. The move won't be that much of a transition for us."

The multicultural aspect of life in the Bay Area also won't require much of a transition for Malhotra, the second player of Indian descent to compete in the NHL. His mother is French-Canadian, his father is from Punjab, and the Toronto suburb where he grew up is recognized for its diversity.

"In Mississauga, you never really look at who's black or Chinese or white or Indian — you're brought up to look at the kind of person they are," said Malhotra, whose parents hold doctorate degrees in biochemistry and polymer chemistry.

Malhotra said he never put much emphasis on being a player of Indian descent, but he started to appreciate the significance when people would tell him they started following hockey because he played the game.

The role Malhotra now plays in the NHL — third-line defensive specialist, faceoff artist, penalty killer — is exactly the job Wilson has been looking to fill since his decision to let Marcel Goc and Mike Grier walk away July 1.

The Sharks had penciled in Torrey Mitchell, who has missed camp with tendinitis, as the third-line center. When Mitchell does return, he is likely to slide over to right wing, a position he has played elsewhere.

His present role is not the one many expected the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Malhotra to fill when the New York Rangers made him their first-round pick in the 1998 draft, the seventh player taken overall. Get chosen that high, and most people look for serious offensive numbers.

But Malhotra said he saw his strength, even in junior hockey, as a shutdown forward.

"I think that's where the trouble was early on in my career, not having that defined role," said Malhotra, whose most productive season with the Rangers was his rookie year with eight goals and eight assists in 73 games.

Malhotra was traded in March 2002 to the Dallas Stars, then claimed off waivers by Columbus early in the 2003-04 season.

There, Malhotra found more success. He averaged 10 goals and 30 points each of the past four seasons. Malhotra won 58 percent of his faceoffs last season to finish fourth-best in the NHL; he finished second-best in 2007-08 with a 59 percent success rate.

Malhotra isn't a total stranger to his new coach and at least one teammate.

Coach Todd McLellan was on the staff of Canada's team in the 2000 World Junior Championships, and Malhotra served as its captain. He and enforcer Jody Shelley played together for more than three seasons in Columbus before Shelley was traded to the Sharks.

Malhotra may have signed with the Sharks for one year at a below-market rate, but if things go well this season, both he and Wilson see the likelihood of a long-term relationship.

"He understands the flexibility we have in the future," said Wilson, who has noted the Sharks' salary cap situation should be significantly improved a year from now.

Long-term is important to Malhotra and his wife.

"We don't want to be in a position of play a year here, play a year there," he said. "We wanted to establish roots."